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Thorvald Spear's only goal was to get his revenge on the rogue artificial intelligence, Penny Royal. The AI apparently left him to die and killed thousands of his comrades in the process. But things aren't as clear-cut as they seem. Can he truly rely on his own version of events? And has Penny Royal been meddling with his memories and his very identity?The alien prador Sverl also has to find Penny Royal, to make some sense of his own transformation. Is he turning into the thing his kind most loath - a curious hybrid incorporating human and AI elements. Meanwhile, the prador Cvorn plans to use Sverl's changing biology for his own ends. If he can prove that humanity's Polity alliance meddled with a prador, using one of its artificial intelligences, it could mean war. And there is nothing Cvorn would like more than another chance to battle with the Polity - however high the cost. As Spear and Sverl hunt Penny Royal, all roads seem to lead to a long-missing War Factory station. Penny Royal seems set on returning to the factory that produced its twisted intelligence. And the AI's enemies will follow it to the bitter end. Their very sanity and a possible war, depend on it.